Doc U: State of the Documentary

by Malcom Moody, Doc U participant

I have mentally committed to posting something once a week for this blog. Now if I miss, please don’t hold it against me, as I have a lot going on right now. I have come to the decision that I am going to make this documentary for the Doc U program focus more on individual artists, than trying to tell the whole story of Minnesota hip hop. I am leaving that to the full length documentary, which will incorporate some of this shorter length documentary.

Maybe a little background will help, for anyone who is just reading this and has no context on what I’m talking about. In 2010 I started work on a full length documentary that was to cover hip hops history in Minnesota, the growth and transitions it has went through, current players in the game, what we as artists need to do to progress Minnesota hip hop, and a multitude of other issues concerning hip hop. I was near completion of the filming of that, when I was approached by SPNN staff with an opportunity to participate in what is now the Doc U Program. I found many advantageous reasons to participate, so I have shifted my work to a shorter documentary, which will cover less ground, but focus more on the artists interviewed, their stories and contributions to Minnesota hip hop. Portions of this documentary will be used in my full length documentary.

So far some of the people I have already interviewed or have gotten verbal confirmation of their participation are DJ D-Mil,  DJ Stage One, Carnage The Executioner, Tony Bones/Long Doe, Glorius of Abstract Pack, MaLLy, Brother Ali, St Paul Slim, Peter Parker, I Self Devine, Absent, DJ O.N.E., Bro Jules, Shawn Skie, and many others. I know I am missing a lot of names but I don’t have a full list handy.

I would like to thank all the artists for their time and support. This has been a long road traveled and I know some of you wondered if this project would even see the light of day, but as P Diddy would say, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop.